Arcbazar

We had hired an designer/​architect to design this space. He charged $ 150/​hr. 3 drawings and 3 meetings later it was clear that he was not listening to us and had not even come close to what we had requested. That debacle cost us $ 2100.
We read about
and decided to try them. We submitted drawings of the space with measurements, described the project and what we would like to see and accomplish, photos of the space. We bid a low $ 600 for the project and submitted asking for completion in 2 weeks.
Within a few days we had 10 people from around the world interested in our project. During the process we received requests for clarification or more information.
At the end of the process we had 7 submissions most including elevations, renderings, materials lists and sources. All of these submissions met our basic criteria. All were impressive and beat the $ 150/​hr guy in presentation, value and execution.
You can send the designs to friends and family to help you rank the designs. We all agreed on our top 1, 2 and 3 designs.
I requested and was given the contact information for our top ranked designer. We have contacted that person to modify the initial design. That is outside of Arcbazar but have to say this part of the process is also going splendidly at a reasonable price.
We are thrilled with this process and will never go back.
Hints:
~ You might want to allow more time for your project
~ Offer a little more money. The top guy only gets a portion of the pie.
~ Ana, in the office, is also accessible by phone for questions. Just have to work in their time zone.
~ The more specific you are the better results.
~ Our bids came from Armenia, Belaruse, Italy, France, Romania, etc So you get an international flare.